KTR’s challenge turns blessing in disguise

Hyderabad: By accepting the challenge thrown by Industries Minister KT Rama Rao, the Congress seems to have made a tactical move to instil confidence among the party cadre on winning the next elections.

The party leaders said acceptance of the challenge had shown the confidence of the party on winning the next elections. The future activity based on this would boost the morale of the cadre, they opined.

It may be recalled here that Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president N Uttam Kumar Reddy accepted the challenge made by Rama Rao. Rama Rao said Uttam Kumar Reddy should quit politics if Congress did not come to power in the State. In his reply, Uttam dared that the Chief Minister and his family members including his nephew Harish Rao should quit politics if Congress won the elections.

However, there is no response from the Chief Minister’s camp about this so far. The Congress may reiterate its demand on the challenge and would try to drag the Chief Minister and his family into a long-drawn electoral debate. Acceptance of the TRS challenge by the Congress turned the next election a battle between TRS president K Chandrashekar Rao’s family and Uttam Kumar Reddy’s family.

The issue has also brought the TPCC president to the centre stage in the State politics and henceforth the political battle between the Congress and the TRS would be considered as a fight between Chandrashekar Rao and Uttam Kumar.

Several party leaders who had feedback from the cadre after Rama Rao and Uttam traded challenges said the party workers started to believe that the Congress could put up good fight with the ruling TRS. “Unless he is confident, how Uttam could stake his political career,” they felt.

Apart from accepting the challenge, Uttam also made an attempt to match his image with that of Chandrashekar Rao. While criticizing the Chief Minister for corruption, arrogance and dictatorial attitude, Uttam tried to show how clean he was.

At a press conference, he said he and his wife did not have children and they had no ambition to amass wealth for the family. He was a pilot of jet fighters and worked in the Indo-Pak border. He was ready to lay down his life for the country and could do the same for the sake of Telangana.

Party leaders said that by staking his political career, Uttam had made a bold move to create confidence among the voters and emerged as an undisputed leader in the Congress. Now the party has no other way than supporting him.

Uttam Kumar Reddy has been consistently stating that the Congress would win about 70 Assembly seats in the next elections, quoting the results of several poll surveys conducted by him and the party high command. He believes that the people are against the government and a silent revolution is being taking place.